Weekly Highlights 14/06/2024

Mr. Simon Higham, Principal

Dear Parents 

Welcome to the penultimate Weekly Highlights of this academic year and thank you again for supporting our school community by taking time to read through this edition.

Principal’s Afternoon Tea

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of hosting the 4th Principal's Afternoon Tea of the year with around 50 participating parents and colleagues.

The focus for this event was the Friends of BVIS (FoBVIS), looking at how we can build upon this year’s successes to provide quality learning experiences for our children, parents and wider community. The discussions centred around 3 main topic areas that can be seen below.

If you would like to become involved in FoBVIS, please contact Ms Nhien, Events Manager at the following email: nhien.ngo@bvisvietnam.com

No matter what support you can give, we look forward to welcoming you to the FoBVIS team.

Houston – Here we come!

On Tuesday this week, 3 of our BVIS students: 
- Tran Minh Anh
- Nguyen Vo Tri Nguyen (Simon) 
- Chenh Toan Hy (Kyle) 

Headed off to Houston, representing BVIS at the annual Nord Anglia Education UNICEF Conference. We are looking forward to hearing about their unique experiences as BVIS ambassadors when they arrive back in school next week.

Additionally, on Sunday 16th June a group of 11 BVIS Secondary students will also be travelling to Houston on a new residential trip set up exclusively between 2 NAE schools - BVIS and The Village School.

Whist in Houston, our students will:

- Visit the Space Center Museum
- Take a VIP tour of Mission Control at the Johnson Space Centre
- Take part in astronaut training within a weightless environment
- Visit the University of Houston
- Visit the Museum of Natural Science.

Wow, what experiences lie ahead! Look out for updates in next week's Highlights. I'm so excited for them all and wish I could join too!

Future Bulldogs

Following the end of Clubs and ECAs last week, this week has seen upwards of 100 students attending trials in swimming, football and basketball. My thanks to the PE Department for organising these events and well done to everyone who has taken part. The final squads will be announced soon.

Goodbye and Welcome

On Wednesday this week, all parents received a staffing update, announcing all teachers who we will be sadly saying goodbye to this year and introducing all teachers who will be joining us this August.

We will formally introduce all new teachers to you in the early editions of these Highlights when we return to school after the holiday.

Sustainable Development Goal 4 “Quality Education”

Closely aligned with our UNICEF collaboration, it is our belief at BVIS that every child is entitled to a quality education.

It is our pleasure to share with you that during this academic year, we have proudly provided full sponsorships for 15 children from disadvantaged backgrounds, coming from schools in the provinces of Tra Vinh and Tay Ninh. This number has significantly increased compared to the 6 scholarships that BVIS sponsored in the previous academic year.  

Read more in this post about how our community work is making a real difference to the lives of others less fortunate than ourselves.

Khanh Van (Violet), successfully conquers 10 US universities with a total scholarship value of over 14.5 billion VND

Congratulations to Khanh Van (Violet) Year 13 for receiving a flurry of acceptance letters from 10 US universities during this highly competitive admission season!

Read about all of her amazing offers in full by accessing this post from our school website.

Well done to all our Year 13 students for every offer they have worked hard for and fully deserve.

Lower Primary Project Curiosity: Nurturing Research and Presentation Skills

With a new approach to Project Curiosity for Lower Primary this year, our Year 1, 2, and 3 students were given the freedom to choose and investigate a topic of interest. They then collaborated with their families to create a display to share at the showcase.  

Read more about their incredible learning experiences and check out photographs showcasing the project in action, in this post.

Our congratulations to all Lower Primary children and parents for all your efforts.

Contact Us

Should you wish to contact your child’s Class Teacher(s) or Form Tutor directly, we encourage communication to be written in the language you most feel confident to use. 

Parents may also find it useful to contact their child’s class teacher(s) or form tutor directly for all individual queries about their academic work/social and emotional wellbeing in school. Individual contact details can be found in the Parents’ Handbooks or via our Primary/Secondary Receptionists.  

I would like to personally wish you all a very safe and family orientated weekend ahead.

Mrs Mary McAloon, Head of Primary

Primary House Maths

Students had fun this week during the inaugural Primary House Maths events.  Each year group came together to challenge themselves to solve maths problems as a team in order to earn house points.  The Years 3 to 6 events were hosted in the Main Hall to allow space for the final round of ‘relay maths’.  This round required both physical and mental strength where each time a team had completed a problem, the ’shipper’ had to return it to the maths base and collect a new problem. The team that correctly solved the most problems, earned the most house points.  The first two rounds were based on code breaking and tangram puzzles, both challenging students’ brains and motivating them to work out the answers.

The Year 1 and 2 events were hosted in their classrooms, where students are familiar with the environment and know where to find resources to support their mathematical working out.  All students fully immersed themselves in the activities and the delight on their faces showed just how much they enjoyed the experience.

Well done to all students for participating with such enthusiasm and thank you to Ms Phuong Pham, Primary Maths Leader, for planning, organising and leading all six House Maths events successfully.

Celebrating SASMO Winners

We would like to congratulate BVIS students who took part in SASMO 2024, the 19th Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad. This year the competition attracted 57,060 students from Year 2 to 13, representing 7,333 schools across 38 countries. 

Among the exceptional participants, we are proud to share with you that the following students won their medals.

Bronze award:

Xuan Lan (Year 4)
Ha An (Hana, Year 4)
Duc Quang (Year 5)
Bao Khoi (Bon, Year 5)
Minh Long (Year 6)
Phuc Vinh (Gon, Year 6)

Silver award:

Minh Anh (Cherry, Year 5)
SunWoo (Year 6)
Gia Phuc (Ken, Year 6)

Gold award:

Truong An (Year 4)

Summer Music Concert

The Summer Music Concert was such a heartwarming evening for our community. Students from both Primary and Secondary came together to share what they had learned across the year when attending their individual musical groups and clubs.  It was an experience to remember and I couldn’t be more proud of the performers for their dedication to practice and their confidence and courage to perform in front of a huge audience, which must be commended.

The event is a good reminder of how important it is for our students to explore and experience musical instruments.  Playing a musical instrument or singing as a child not only may become a passion to take them onto a lucrative career in musical leadership, but it also has many benefits including, increased patience, self-esteem and coordination, plus it improves reading, maths and memory capacity.  With the number of benefits of learning to play an instrument, I would encourage students to consider starting instrumental lessons. 

Last Primary Live Lunches of 23/24

This week we had the last of the primary live lunches of the year.  Each term, students have had the opportunity to showcase their musical interests and talent during their lunchtimes by registering for their year group’s special live lunch hosted in the primary foyer.  Students can choose to take a break from playing outdoors and instead enjoy their peers’ performances as they sit in the audience and applaud the confidence and musical abilities of the students.  Throughout the year students have chosen to perform either solo or with their friends as a group ensemble.  We have heard a variety of musical performances which have included, drumming, singing, piano and beatboxing.  Thank you to all the students who have shown confidence to step out in front of an audience to showcase their musical abilities.

Upcoming Events

1. 19/06/24 - 17:30 – Sports Awards in the Main Hall
   
2. 21/06/24 - 14:00 – End of EYFS Celebration
   
3. 24/06/24 - Transition day for primary
4. 25/06/24 -16:00 – Year 6 Celebration
5. 26/06/24 -11:30 – Term 3 Ends  

Mr Toby Bate, Head of Secondary

English Faculty 

Year 8 students have been diligently engaged in an exceptional mini-project, enhancing their cultural and social awareness.

The impressive work on display involved two tasks connected to the text: a research project, in which students explored global human displacement, and a creative project, where they transformed lines from the play into visual art. Beyond being a creative endeavor, this project has significantly expanded our students' understanding of global issues and has encouraged them to consistently exhibit compassion and empathy towards those in need.

Science Faculty - CREST Awards

Year 7, 8 and 9 students have been taking part in the CREST awards. CREST is a scheme that inspires young people to think and behave like scientists. They are given a scientific question and then are tasked with planning out an experiment to try to answer the question. Questions have included- 'What's in our food?', 'How does shampoo work?’ And 'What makes rollercoasters faster?'.

The project is student-led so they plan out and perform their own experiment that they have designed themselves. This gives them an opportunity to explore an area of science that they are particularly interested in. We have seen some excellent experiments such as burning food to see the amount of energy being released. Another experiment involved washing hair samples with different types of shampoo and then observing under a microscope to see which is cleaner. In one experiment, students made their own rollercoaster! Well done to all students for their hard work and commitment during the project

June Live Lunch

Today saw the final live lunch session of the academic year and we’ve gone out with a bang! KS5 students led the way performing as bands and vocal duos, supported by our wonderful KS4 performers, and with a guest performance by several of our teaching staff. 

Thank-you to all performers and audience members for a super Live Lunch and a fantastic year of music-making.

Summer Music Concert

This Thurday saw the long-awaited return of the BVIS Summer Concert. This is a celebration of music-making from across the Primary and Secondary schools and provided a chance for our young performers to shine, sharing their summery music for all to feel good at the end of a fabulous academic year.

Thank-you to all musicians from choirs, ukulele club, xylophones club, staff performers and our fabulous teachers from the Auftdart School of Music and Performing Arts. A big thank-you to all those who have supported this musical adventure.

BVIS Media Awards 2024 

On Tuesday 18th June we will be celebrating the incredible work undertaken by our Year 12 & 13 students throughout the academic year.  In Year 12 the students have made some wonderful Film Openings for their coursework and in Year 13 students have created some tremendous Music Videos. Screening will take place during lunchtimes on Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th June, with the Awards Ceremony taking place in the school theatre at 3:30 pm on Tuesday 18th June.

Art Department Art Auction

The Art Department's annual Art Auction is happening on Friday, June 21st, at lunchtime. Students and staff, get ready to bid on incredible works by current students and alumni. From drawings and paintings to photography and digital art, there's something for everyone. All proceeds will be donated to our local charities. Happy bidding!

House Sways

Champion of the Week 

This week’s champion student is:

Well done to Gia My (Rose) - 11S! Congratulations

Champion Tutor Group

This week’s Champion tutor group is 8S. Well done to everyone in the tutor group who worked together to achieve more house points than anyone else last week. 

House point update

The housepoint totals will be hidden between now and the final announcement at the end of the year. We encourage all our students to keep trying right up until the very end, a single housepoint could make the difference! There are only a couple of weeks to go now!

Upcoming Events